Every Alien Movie - Ranked From Worst To Best

In a way, the Alien/Aliens debate is a completely irrelevant one, since comparing the two is like comparing apples and oranges.

Where Alien is the perfect sci-fi horror, its first sequel, Aliens, is the perfect sci-fi actioner, and while both films are trying to do different things, they both have the same level of success in doing those things - it really all comes down to which genre you prefer.

A then-unknown James Cameron assumed the director's chair for this sequel, which follows Ellen Ripley, who, after 57 years in hypersleep, reluctantly returns to LV-426, the planet from the original film on which the alien was first discovered.

It's here where she encounters a whole host of the nightmarish beasts, and is forced to fight alongside a team of cocksure Colonial Marines in order to survive.

What makes Aliens so brilliant is that, unlike most sequels, it doesn't attempt to just do the first film 'but bigger'. Alien worked because of its narrow corridors and tight environment; scaling up that concept just wouldn't work.

Instead, Cameron scaled up the amount of Xenomorphs - which ups the ante - and placed them in an action movie, a concept that allowed him to go bigger and better without shoving Ridley Scott's original through the grinder.

The result is an endlessly-quotable, thrilling sci-fi shoot-em-up, with career-defining performances from Bill Paxton and Lance Henriksen, action that ramps up perfectly, and, again, another simple, clutter-free narrative that gives the film focus.

Aliens isn't just the best movie in the franchise - it's a textbook example of how to make a sequel work.

How would you rank the Alien movies? Leave your list in the comments below!